Third Wheel

The last few days I've been lucky enough to get lots of happy wedding errands done with my Mom and even the newlywed, my Dr. Big Sis, who was able to sneak away from LA and join the wedding fun.  My Mom has helped me be so productive in this regard, I swear, by the time I get back to Miami I'll be itching to get my hands on anything satin, snapdragon, or printed in thermography.  

Meanwhile, back in reality, Gannon has been working his tail off at his USC externship, and wringing every ounce he can from the experience.  This weekend, he expected shorter days than usual (i.e. the equivalent of a normal person's work day) and only had to go in for morning rounds on Columbus Day.  Thinking the weekend would be a nice opportunity to spend some time with my honey and his parents at their home in LA, I decided to carpool back up north with my sis and hang out for a couple days.

Of course, as is the case if he's on externships, rotations, post call, or on vacation in Bora Bora, there's always work to be done.  In this case, he's studying for his Step 2 Clinical Skills (CS) exam that's coming up this week.  

Recognize this guy??  

This is the study guide for Step 2 CS, and what Gannon is studying at this very moment.  For those of you SOSers who have not been exposed to Step 2 CS, it's the section of USMLE where about a dozen professional patients (read: desperate commercial actors) test the med student - aka. your sweetie - on  interpersonal doctoring skills during fake medical exams.  

They can fake cry because they can't pay their fake bills, fake get angry because they had to fake wait in the fake waiting room, fake want to consult their fake swami because Advil is not part of their fake detox program.  And the med students need to be able to handle it all.  Seems easy, but after flipping through the book, there's a lot to remember - from remembering to introduce yourself to warning the patient that you're going to stick a cold metal thing in their ear.

SO... there's a story here, I assure you... Sunday night, Gannon invited me out for our first fancy date in months, and even kept the location as a surprise (I love a surprise!!) - - - and guess who came along?  Good ol' USMLE Step 2 CS Study Guide.  Now, it's not like Gannon wanted to sit with USMLE at the table and chat about the Dodgers sweeping St. Louis, but still, the book was to be our third wheel during the ride to this mysterious dining experience.  And my job was to help Gannon review the appropriate questions to ask patients the possible upcoming patient encounters.

So here I am, wearing my big girl makeup, a cute black halter top, jeans worthy of LA after happy hour, with my skinny gold bracelets chiming together like the wings of a dozen golden hummingbirds... and our pre-dinner conversation in the car goes something like, "Did you vomit?  Did you throw up?  What color was the vomit?  Did you see and blood in it?"  (Later: "Have you noticed any change in the color of your urine?" and "What does your stool look like?")

I figured you all would appreciate that.

In any case, Gannon soon took pity on me around HWY 10, and I was rewarded with an epic dinner at Hollywood's uber swanky Mondrian Hotel on Sunset Blvd.  

"Baby!  What are you doing?!??" I asked as we pulled up to the $15 valet (with validation).

"Living beyond my means," was his response.  

That's good to do sometimes.  

(I love him.)